The Petri Net Method

By
Dr Chris Ling
School of Computer Science & Software Engineering
Monash University

Chris.Ling@csse.monash.edu.au
Introduction
 First introduced by Carl Adam Petri in
1962.
 A diagrammatic tool to model concurrency
and synchronization in distributed systems.
 Very similar to State Transition Diagrams.
 Used as a visual communication aid to
model the system behaviour.
 Based on strong mathematical foundation.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Example: EFTPOS System (STD of an FSM)
(EFTPOS= Electronic Fund Transfer Point of Sale)

1 digit 1 digit 1 digit 1 digit

Initial d1 d2 d3 d4

OK
OK OK
OK
OK OK
pressed

approve
Rejected Reject

Initial state
Approved
Final state
(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling
 Example: EFTPOS System (A Petri net)

1 digit 1 digit 1 digit 1 digit d4

Initial d1 d2 d3

OK
OK OK OK
OK

OK
pressed
Rejected!
approve
Reject

approved

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

EFTPOS System

 Scenario 1: Normal
– Enters all 4 digits and press OK.
 Scenario 2: Exceptional
– Enters only 3 digits and press OK.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

 Example: EFTPOS System (Token Games)

1 digit 1 digit 1 digit 1 digit d4

Initial d1 d2 d3

OK
OK OK OK
OK

OK
pressed
Rejected!
approve
Reject

approved

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

A Petri Net Specification ...
 consists of three types of components:
places (circles), transitions (rectangles) and
arcs (arrows):
– Places represent possible states of the system;
– Transitions are events or actions which cause
the change of state; And
– Every arc simply connects a place with a
transition or a transition with a place.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

A Change of State …
 is denoted by a movement of token(s)
(black dots) from place(s) to place(s); and is
caused by the firing of a transition.
 The firing represents an occurrence of the
event or an action taken.
 The firing is subject to the input conditions,
denoted by token availability.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

A Change of State
 A transition is firable or enabled when there
are sufficient tokens in its input places.
 After firing, tokens will be transferred from
the input places (old state) to the output
places, denoting the new state.
 Note that the EFTPOS example is a Petri
net representation of a finite state machine
(FSM).

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Example: Vending Machine
 The machine dispenses two kinds of snack
bars – 20c and 15c.
 Only two types of coins can be used
– 10c coins and 5c coins.
 The machine does not return any change.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Example: Vending Machine (STD of an FSM)
Take 15c snack bar

Deposit 10c 15 cents

5 cents
5c
o sit
e p
D 5c

Deposit 5c
Deposit 5c
i t
pos
0 cent
De De
po
sit
10
c
Deposit 10c 20 cents
10 cents

Take 20c snack bar

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling
Example: Vending Machine (A Petri net)

Take 15c bar

Deposit 10c
15c
5c
Deposit 5c

Deposit Deposit
0c 5c Deposit 5c
5c

Deposit 10c
10c 20c
Deposit 10c
Take 20c bar

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Example: Vending Machine (3 Scenarios)

 Scenario 1:
– Deposit 5c, deposit 5c, deposit 5c, deposit 5c,
take 20c snack bar.
 Scenario 2:
– Deposit 10c, deposit 5c, take 15c snack bar.
 Scenario 3:
– Deposit 5c, deposit 10c, deposit 5c, take 20c
snack bar.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Example: Vending Machine (Token Games)

Take 15c bar

Deposit 10c
15c
5c
Deposit 5c

Deposit Deposit
0c 5c Deposit 5c
5c

Deposit 10c
10c 20c
Deposit 10c
Take 20c bar

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Multiple Local States

 In the real world, events happen at the same

time.
 A system may have many local states to
form a global state.
 There is a need to model concurrency and
synchronization.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Example: In a Restaurant (A Petri Net)
Waiter
Customer 1 free Customer 2

Take Take
order order

wait Order wait

taken

eating eating
Tell
kitchen Serve food
Serve food

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Example: In a Restaurant (Two Scenarios)

 Scenario 1:
– Waiter takes order from customer 1; serves
customer 1; takes order from customer 2; serves
customer 2.
 Scenario 2:
– Waiter takes order from customer 1; takes order
from customer 2; serves customer 2; serves
customer 1.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Example: In a Restaurant (Scenario 1)
Waiter
Customer 1 free Customer 2

Take Take
order order

wait Order wait

taken

eating eating
Tell
kitchen Serve food
Serve food

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Example: In a Restaurant (Scenario 2)
Waiter
Customer 1 free Customer 2

Take Take
order order

wait Order wait

taken

eating eating
Tell
kitchen Serve food
Serve food

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Net Structures
 A sequence of events/actions:

e1 e2 e3

 Concurrent executions:

e2 e3

e1

e4 e5
(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling
Net Structures
 Non-deterministic events - conflict, choice or
decision: A choice of either e1, e2 … or e3, e4 ...

e1 e2

e3 e4

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Net Structures
 Synchronization

e1

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Net Structures
 Synchronization and Concurrency

e1

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Another Example
• A producer-consumer system, consist of one
producer, two consumers and one storage buffer
with the following conditions:
• The storage buffer may contain at most 5 items;
• The producer sends 3 items in each production;
• At most one consumer is able to access the storage
buffer at one time;
• Each consumer removes two items when accessing the
storage buffer

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

A Producer-Consumer System
k=1 k=2

ready accepted
p1 p4
Storage p3
produce accept
t1 t2 3 2 t3 t4 consume
send
k=5
p2 p5
idle ready
k=1 k=2

Producer Consumers

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

A Producer-Consumer Example
• In this Petri net, every place has a capacity
and every arc has a weight.
• This allows multiple tokens to reside in a
place to model more complex behaviour.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Behavioural Properties
• Reachability
• “Can we reach one particular state from
another?”
• Boundedness
• “Will a storage place overflow?”
• Liveness
• “Will the system die in a particular state?”

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Recalling the Vending Machine (Token Game)

Take 15c bar

Deposit 10c
15c
5c
Deposit 5c

Deposit Deposit
0c 5c Deposit 5c
5c

Deposit 10c
10c 20c
Deposit 10c
Take 20c bar

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

A marking is a state ...
t8 p4 M0 = (1,0,0,0,0)
t4
p2 M1 = (0,1,0,0,0)
t1 M2 = (0,0,1,0,0)
M3 = (0,0,0,1,0)
p1 t3 t7 M4 = (0,0,0,0,1)
t5

Initial marking:M0
t6 p5
t2
p3

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling t9

Reachability
t8 p4
t4
M0 = (1,0,0,0,0)
p2
t1 M1 = (0,1,0,0,0)
M2 = (0,0,1,0,0)
p1 M3 = (0,0,0,1,0)
t3 t7
t5 M4 = (0,0,0,0,1)

p3
t6 p5 Initial marking:M0
t2

t9

t1 t3 t5 t8 t2 t6
M0 M1 M2 M3 M0 M2 M4

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Reachability
A firing or occurrence sequence:
t1 t3 t5 t8 t2 t6
M0 M1 M2 M3 M0 M2 M4

• “M2 is reachable from M1 and M4 is

reachable from M0.”
• In fact, in the vending machine example, all
markings are reachable from every marking.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Boundedness
• A Petri net is said to be k-bounded or
simply bounded if the number of tokens in
each place does not exceed a finite number
k for any marking reachable from M0.
• The Petri net for vending machine is 1-
bounded.
• A 1-bounded Petri net is also safe.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Liveness
• A Petri net with initial marking M0 is live
if, no matter what marking has been
reached from M0, it is possible to ultimately
fire any transition by progressing through
some further firing sequence.
• A live Petri net guarantees deadlock-free
operation, no matter what firing sequence is
chosen.
(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling
Liveness
• The vending machine is live and the
producer-consumer system is also live.
• A transition is dead if it can never be fired
in any firing sequence.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

An Example
t1
p3

p1 p2 t3 t4

p4
t2

M0 = (1,0,0,1)
M1 = (0,1,0,1)
M2 = (0,0,1,0)
M3 = (0,0,0,1)
A bounded but non-live Petri net
(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling
Another Example
p1 M0 = (1, 0, 0, 0, 0)
M1 = (0, 1, 1, 0, 0)

t1 M2 = (0, 0, 0, 1, 1)
M3 = (1, 1, 0, 0, 0)
p2 p3 M4 = (0, 2, 1, 0, 0)

t2 t3

p4 p5

t4
An unbounded but live Petri net
(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling
Analysis Methods
• Reachability Analysis:
• Reachability or coverability tree.
• State explosion problem.
• Incidence Matrix and State Equations.
• Structural Analysis
• Based on net structures.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

Other Types of Petri Nets
• High-level Petri nets
• Tokens have “colours”, holding complex
information.
• Timed Petri nets
• Time delays associated with transitions and/or
places.
• Fixed delays or interval delays.
• Stochastic Petri nets: exponentially distributed
random variables as delays.
(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling
Other Types of Petri Nets
• Object-Oriented Petri nets
• Tokens are instances of classes, moving from
one place to another, calling methods and
changing attributes.
• Net structure models the inner behaviour of
objects.
• The purpose is to use object-oriented constructs
to structure and build the system.

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling

An O-O Petri Net
Producer Consumer
ready accepted

Storage accept
produce send
consume

ready
Producer
Consumer
data: ITEM
data: ITEM
ITEM produce( )
ITEM accept( )
void send(ITEM)
void consume(ITEM)
(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling
Petri Net References
 Murata, T. (1989, April). Petri nets: properties, analysis
and applications. Proceedings of the IEEE, 77(4), 541-80.
 Peterson, J.L. (1981). Petri Net Theory and the Modeling
of Systems. Prentice-Hall.
 Reisig, W and G. Rozenberg (eds) (1998). Lectures on
Petri Nets 1: Basic Models. Springer-Verlag.
 The World of Petri nets:
http://www.daimi.au.dk/PetriNets/

(C) Copyright 2001, Chris Ling